APAD,
The information you provide is interesting, and it would be telling to find out what other fully functioning "stock" setups exist. This will probably never happen though as most active online users are those who are having problems or have had problems in the past... not the ones who are enjoying simple plug and play success like you.
In the end though, using 4+ year old single-processor systems <915-chipset (in other words, avoiding anything built in the past four years) doesn't seem like any better a solution than making use of new systems that may require a manual 1394 bus controller driver change.
Based on our discussion, any of the following could be true:
(1) - for the past 5 years mobo/chipset designers (nVidia, gigabyte, intel, asus, and many more) all failed to recognize that there were some serious issues with their systems' design and chipsets.
(2) - MOTU fails to develop drivers that function in consistently with any mobos and/or chipsets developed after 2004 or 2005.
(3) - MS fails to keep up with providing drivers that function properly with modern protocols (like 1394).
What I know is that there is written documentation by MS stating very clearly that they messed up 1394 once in XP SP2(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222), and again in XP SP3(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955408). I also know that for many users, flipping back to SP1 drivers fixes the issue as easy as flipping a switch. This makes it pretty clear to me that MS has something do with it.
But there is one interesting thing that I noticed: your 915 chipset (the "newest" successful chipset in your systems) was released June 2004 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_In ... 4_Chipsets) while, XP SP2 was launched in August of 2004 (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP) only 2 months later.
Here's my hypothesis (which is an amalgamation of your theory, and mine):
- <Aug 2004 MS was working hard trying to ensure FW worked great, and did this by supplying drivers. At the same time hardware manufacturers were doing the same.
- >Aug 2004 MS launched SP2 which crippled firewire from 400mbps down to 100mbps, thus making USB look like the superior protocol to the unknowing user. Hmmmm, why would they do this? The conspiracy theorists (hah) claim that firewire (an Apple trademark) was crippled this was done to make USB look better. Remember USB3.0 was just launched in Nov08.
- MS released a hotfix to patch up the speed problem after complaints, but it's probably safe to assume that the foundation of the 1394bus controller driver hasn't truly been updated since the SP1 days, when your 915 and earlier were designed. It's only received bandaid after bandaid. This would explain why SP2 and SP3 continued to work with your older system's firewire devices: the SP2 and SP3 are only truly compatible with the old hardware from the SP1 days. This would also explain why third-party AVT drivers have been successful for some users' new systems: it's a total rebuild that addresses modern designs. It would also explain by reverting back to the original SP1 drivers is successful for some users' new systems: it's not bloated with fixes and other fat.
